


A Secret Story About The Skies

by SecondStarfall (beantiger)



Series: The Second Starfall Stories [14]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Daughters, Dragons, Fairy Tale Elements, Fairy Tale Style, Fantasy, Fatherhood, Flash Fic, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Medieval, Microfic, Originally Posted Elsewhere, Princes & Princesses, References to Depression, Royalty, Storytelling, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-12
Updated: 2020-01-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22219060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beantiger/pseuds/SecondStarfall
Summary: The next time it was the dragon's turn to tell the princess a story, he said, "I have a secret story for you. A new one. A good one, as you say."***A princess demands that her father, a dragon, tell her a new bedtime story—with results that surprise them both.
Series: The Second Starfall Stories [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1582975
Kudos: 9





	A Secret Story About The Skies

**Author's Note:**

> This is a version of the original Twitterfic, same title, posted over at my now-deactivated personal account in December 2019. It has been given minor edits for consistency with other stories and readability on AO3. ❤️
> 
>  **SUGGESTED RE-READING:** This princess is the child of a queen, a dragon, and a tulip-farmer, whose story is told in ["Dragon, Dragonfly."](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22056346)
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨

"Papa, would you tell me a story?"

The dragon-in-man's-skin looked down at his daughter the princess.

"Once I ate a warrior who came to kill me for my liver," he said. "He tasted very bad." 

_"Papa."_

Six years old and already so demanding. Truly his daughter. The dragon-in-man's-skin sighed.

"There are no more good stories—none that I feel right to tell you myself, at any rate. I could get one of your aunts to—" 

"I heard all of Val's stories _and_ Mar's stories _and_ Papa Galien's stories. I would like a _new_ one. A _good_ one. Please?"

"I suppose I could dig one up for you. But it would take some time. I cannot just uncover memories, you know. Your dear father is very old."

***

The dragon spent a week meditating and sifting through his recollection of the last few hundred years.

His daughter rejected every story he uncovered.

So he sifted longer, and further. 

She didn't like any of those, either. 

Finally, the dragon said, "Honorine, I cannot dive any deeper into my own mind. It is just not something we dragons were meant to do. It is our weakness, you see—"

His daughter gave him the Eyes. That particular effect she had inherited from her mother the queen.

Ugh.

Well: she and her sisters were the first half-dragons that he had ever met. (Of course, he'd had a hand in their creation.) _Why not,_ he thought, _give her something very special?_

***

He burrowed deep within himself for a month.

He discovered something special indeed.

***

The next time it was the dragon's turn to tell the princess a story, he said, "I have a secret story for you. A new one. A good one, as you say."

His daughter clutched the blankets, her expression open with wonder.

"Once a star fell to earth, you see—" 

"Why?"

"Hush. Ahem: she had found herself unhappy in the heavens, and cast herself to earth to die, and here she did die. From her tears arose many creatures, but dragons were the strongest of her children. They emerged from the mist and dust like waterfowl from reeds." 

The dragon meant to leave it there, but his daughter said: "So when you die...other things come to life?"

On one hand, the dragon did not want her to fear death. On the other—he considered his friend the botanist, who had willingly cast herself toward the dark. Many times, in fact. He could not fully stop his daughter from doing the same one day, if she developed melancholy, for it was insidious—he hated to think of it!—but maybe if he gave her the proper armor...

"Yes. But also no, Honorine. That's not the point." 

The dragon pulled himself into his true reptilian form and nudged his daughter onto his great head, between his horns. He gently raised her outside the window so she could see the stars.

He said, "I am saying that I was once inside a star, so you were, too—and you must treat yourself as such, and everyone else you meet. Even when you feel terribly, or hate someone with all your being, you must know you are a star and you must pretend they are, too."

"Why is this a secret story, Papa?"

"The moral," he said, putting her back to bed, "isn't. Tell it to all who cross paths with you. But that we came from the skies..."

He held a finger to his lips. His daughter did the same.

"That is something," the dragon added, "that no one knows but you and I." 

"Thank you for telling me," she replied.

"Thank you for listening."

"I'll always listen."

"Very good," he said, and tried to hide his relief.

**Author's Note:**

> Leave a comment or a kudos or whatever the heck if this tickled your fancy. There shall be more! ❤️ Also, please let me know what other characters, relationships, or places you'd like to hear about. I have lots of ideas, but I'd enjoy writing a few stories for y'all as well.
> 
> ✨ [[see the full SecStar timeline](https://secondstarfall.com/index.php/Official_Timeline) | [check out the SecStar wiki](https://secondstarfall.com/)] ✨
> 
>  **AUTHOR'S COMMENTARY:** Princess Honorine is the first daughter of the royal polycule, and the heir to the Althussian throne. She and her two younger siblings, Tristenne and Fleurette, will feature heavily in some later, longer SecStar work. Which I promise I'll get around to. Someday.


End file.
